Thursday, 15 March 2018

CLXIV. Volmar Duardin

Yet another converted Shadespire warband is in the works. The Chosen Axes fell into my paws last week, and I immediately started hacking them up. The first of their number is finished (bar the base, which will get done at a later date because I'm considering a display base).

I really don't like the look of AoS Fyreslayers. The axes that are braziers, the headgear, the golden runes implanted into their skin... All of that is inextricably linked with their backstory, so if I was to transform them away from those elements, they would no longer be even remotely Fyreslayers. But that's fine by me, I love coming up with my own factions. So the mountain kingdom of Volmar was born. It's waiting to be populated by a mixed people: Duardin, Kobolds, Humans and Half-Dwarves. I'll delve deeper into their country and culture when the warband is done. They look like this at the moment:

I've shown the first dwarf earlier on social networks, and people seem to pick up
both Norse and Mesopotamian vibes from the helm. I'm very happy to hear
that I've successfully blended those. The design was most heavily inspired by one particular
illustration Paul Bonner did for Trudvang:

In other news, the village of Dol, the designated battlefield for the Legen event, got a few more people to inhabit it. Converted and painted another fleeing peasant from the plastic giant kit. Two boys who foolishly wish to fight the attacking gargants with sticks were converted from LOTR Hobbit Shirriffs. The panicked soldier attempting to hide under a discarded ox skull is a characterful conversion of an older metal model, done by Florian Gand from Germany. Thanks again for sending the conversion over, it's perfect for Legen.

Good one, as you Shadespire conversions in general. Now I regret that I only glued Stormcast helmets on all my Shadespire minis. Works good on orc, but make the original dwarves even more rediculous. :)I look forward for your painted gang!

I'm not planning on going quite so far, but yeah, the Fyreslayers are the only Warband that I feel I absolutely need to convert to get them to something I'm OK with. The ones you've done here look kind of semi-feral, which is a vast improvement, just not quite the direction I want to go with them.

I love the highlights across the toes in the first picture. The WIP picture of the others leaves me absolutely baffled as to how you take them to finished product. Would like to see a timelapse of that!

I've said earlier in Instagram that he looks like Sargon king of Akkad but now I see him again I feel a thracian helmet vibe ! Same elongated shape on the upper part, same face mask with beard and moustache. I can see why people think "viking" but to me it's a very oriental design ! I love it, it's very original in our fantasy universes !

I'm not too much of a fan of the Fyreslayers either. That head swap (and a lot of more subtle mods, I'm sure) has done a lot to tame the more exaggerated elements of the model. All in all I think the Shadespire Fyreslayers are better than the regular ones, but they still need some work. I love that art.

Those hobbits work great as kids. I have a mental block to using LotR figures for AoS/40k conversions, but they obviously work a treat in the right circumstances.

Thanks Ross. Vast majority of LOTR minis looks way out of place next to Warhammer figs, since they are scaled and styled differently. Much closer to what we see in historical minis. For instance, goblins from the Hobbit line are a great example of those rare exceptions. The hobbits here were a lucky accidental find in a friend's bits box.

Oh my. This is brilliant! I would have a hard time using Paul Bonner as inspiration for AoS, but I have to give it a shoot. Its amazing how you transferred the concept and carefully picked a detail, that I haven't noticed in the first place.

This web site is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited. This web site is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Wyrd Games LLC. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.